I think this hearkens back to a time (I’m thinking the 1930’s – 1940’s) when things had an intrinsic value to you if you’ve never seen it. Upon seeing the most improbable of events, the viewer was expected to exclaim “Now I’ve seen everything!” And, having experienced all possible things, no further joy can be wrung out of living, so the viewer is expected to commit suicide.

No, I’m serious! That was a “gag” in many cartoons of the era – the character would say that line with a sullen face and shoot himself in the head. Hilarious, no? If you’re a fan of older cartoons and haven’t seen this, it’s because the cartoons you’ve seen have been “cleaned up”.

I think this is one of those misogynistic gags where we’re supposed to understand implicitly that the speaker hates his wife, like all good comedians (“Take my wife. Please.”) So if Mom has never seen one, that makes it a good place to go to avoid her.

In the Warner Brothers cartoon of “Horton Hatches the Egg,” when Horton is being transported by ship, a fish who looks like Peter Lorre says “Now I’ve seen everything,” and shoots himself. This is edited out when you see the cartoon on TV.

I think the joke is that the mom spends all their money. But she’s so dumb, she doesn’t know where the bank is. So if the dad can put the money in the bank before the mom sees it, it’s safe.

I’ve been reading CIDU for many years, and while Johnny Hart is a regular contributor, I don’t think I can recall a single Hart cartoon where the explanations made the cartoon even marginally humorous. The explanations seem to range from (at best) “this is just the obvious bad pun,” to (at worst) “non-Christians are everywhere.”